Influence of Art in Daily Life, Part IV [pp. 415-420]

6 A PPL ETONS' JO URNAL.
being guided aright it clings by some unaccount able perversity to the thousand and one forms of
the unbeautiful that crowd and disfigure the
world. I think, then, some practical good may
be gained by a few simple suggestions, which,
while eschewing metaphysical subtilties, shall
serve to show what beauty-the life and soul of
art-really is, and how it may be distinguished
from its contraries.
How can Beauty be discerned-what are her
outward signs? In the first place, I would pre mise that we are here not within the sphere of
certainty or of positive science. There are no
axioms or definitions by which Beauty can be
precisely or dogmatically designated. Yet she can
be described, presented by examples, and ap proached by way of probabilities. As to descrip tion or illustration, a classic capital, an Etruscan
vase, a Gothic window tracery, are all beautiful,
and yet the reason why it is not easy to say.
Accordingly all authorities, however otherwise
they diverge, agree that the sign, if indeed not
the very essence of beauty, is the pleasure it in cites. The mind is made for beauty just as the
eye is framed for light. A thing of beauty leads
from joy to joy, bringing sunshine within the
soul, and lighting up faculty after faculty till every
chamber of consciousness glows with warmth and
color. The mind greets with rapture the approach of Beauty, and garnishes a dwelling for
her; the affections grow kindly, and the currents
of life flow evenly and gently; unruly passions
are laid to rest, and discords soften into harmonies. Beauty, too, like spring garlanded with
flowers, is jocund and health-giving. Thus Addison, of such states of delectation, writes: " Delightful scenes, whether in nature, painting, or
poetry, have a kindly influence on the body as
well as the mind, and not only serve to clear and
brighten the imagination, but are able to disperse
grief and melancholy, and to set the animal spirits
in pleasing and agreeable motion. For this reason, Lord Bacon, in his essay upon health, has
not thought it improper to prescribe to his readers
a poem or a prospect." In fine, the proof and
the purpose of beauty is the pleasure it brings,
the intent being to adorn life and add to the sum
of human happiness.
I have sometimes felt it derogatory to the arts
to hold that beauty, their vital breath, is chiefly,
if not exclusively, pleasure-giving. But a sufficient reply seems to be that the pleasures of the
mind become high or low according to the faculties called into play. There are not only the
pleasures of the senses, but the poets sing of
'"the pleasures of hope "and "the pleasures of the
imagination." Beauty has many phases or modes
of manifestation; there is physical beauty as seen
in a Greek athlete, aesthetic beauty as sometimes
found in highly wrought and artistic types of
girlhood and womanhood, intellectual beauty as
portrayed by the poet Shelley, moral and religious
beauty as displayed by martyrs and saints, and
depicted in sacred art. And these divers forms
of beauty, corresponding with cognate states of
mind, evoke varying pleasures. The beauty is of
a base order that appeals to passion, but beauty
becomes soul-moving when it inspires to wor ship. And the dignity of the arts may in like
manner be appraised by the worth of the ideas
delineated and of the emotions evoked. The
doctrine has often been propounded, and is not
destitute of reason, that there subsists an under lying union between beauty, truth, and good ness; beauty answering to the aesthetic sense,
truth to the intellect, and goodness to the con science, each and all being essential to a perfect
work either of nature or of art. Beauty thus in dissoluble from truth and goodness becomes ideal
-it is without blemish, it stands the attribute of
high minds, the source of pure and noble plea sure. The belief that mind alone inspires beauty
finds expression in the following oft-quoted lines;
the first are by Akenside, the second from Mi chael Angelo:
"Mind, mind alone, bear witness earth and heaven,
The living fountain in itself contains
Of beauteous and sublime."
"Deep in that source whence our existence flows,
Beauty's transcendent forms are all combined
Beyond all other attributes of mind."
And when once we have learned to think worthily
of beauty we may next consider its distribution
and favorite habitats. These are primarily in
nature and derivatively in art. And here I wish
to guard against the notion that beauty is a boon
"too bright and good for human nature's daily
food." We are taught by the poet of nature
that "the lowly have the birthright of the skies,"
that "heaven lies about us in our infancy," that
" the meanest flower that blows can give thoughts
that do often lie too deep for tears"; and so is it
with Beauty, she is near and dear to the simple
and true-hearted.
Perhaps it may be of some use to point out
how we may distinguish beauty in nature and
what the artist can do for us. In the world
Beauty is scattered, unequally distributed, and
often sorely defaced. To this her marred and
mutilated estate may be applied Milton's famous
simile concerning truth: "Her lovely form is
hewn into a thousand pieces and scattered to the
four winds," and artists and others, "imitating
the careful search that Isis made for the mangled
body of Osiris, have gone up and down gathering limb by limb as they could be found"; yet
all the scattered fragments have not been found,
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